Race for Success 2008 - South Beach, Florida

Day 2: Breakfast, Eco Tour, Party at Nikki Beach

(March 3, 2008)

We awoke before 7 to get showered and ready for the all-day Eco Tour of the Everglades. Breakfast started at 7, so we ate quickly to be ready for the bus at 8. It was an hour trip out to Johnny TigerTail's Airboat Everglade Tour, but well worth it. We slept a lot on the bus that day!

Here we are loaded onto the airboats for the ride out to the first island. This island has been in the TigerTail family for over 200 years, and they raise turtles and alligators for conservation here. We got to hold the baby turtles and alligators.

Marna holding a baby alligator.

We then went back on the boats over to another of their islands, where the family makes native beadwork and clothing. On this island live two adult alligators that Johnny has known all his life. He fed them frog legs while petting them and talking to us about them ...

After the Everglades tour, we drove for another hour over to Everglade City, where we had lunch at Camille's on the Gulf of Mexico. Sorry, no pictures of that, but it was a lovely whimsical local spot with good food. We then drove another hour over to the Cypress Swamp where we tour and artist gallery and his part of the swamp. It was amazingly beautiful, and there were alligators everywhere. We then drove another hour back to South Beach, and we saw many alligators along the 'Alligator Alley', which is a main road through the Everglades.



We got back just before, and needed to be ready for the Beach Party that night by 6:15 - so we showered, changed, and were ready to roll quickly. The Beach Party was at a restaurant/bar called Nikki's Beach, which is open to the beach. It was set up with fires, activities, buffet, really beautiful. Below are some pictures of the things we did that night. We were the last to leave around 1 am, and we did partake in AfterGlow back at the hotel later. Long day!


The custom-made sandcastle with the Race for Success logo

Marna and Gary by the sandcastle

Marna's poor hoola-hoop form, she didn't win the contest

Fire Dancer

Gary's excellent limbo style - he was the last man in the contest, but he didn't win - Nancy did!